George Watkins: It's Rabobank Stadium to the rescue

Sep. 10, 2013

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boys notebook

PREP FOOTBALL TOP 101. Hollister: Classic matchup with Palo Alto on Friday. 2. Carmel: Beat Salinas in 2011, N. Salinas in 2012, Palma in 2013. How about Hollister in 2014? 3. Salinas: Cowboys were twice as big, twice as fast as N. Salinas 4. Christopher: Takes on Carmel in two weeks. 5. Palma: Only gave Carmel one offensive touchdown. 6. Monterey: Finally, a game this week, even if it is in Gridley. 7. Seaside: You know what they say about defense. 8. Soledad: First it beat an MBL Gabilan divison team, now comes an MBL Pacific divison school in N. County. 9. Pacific Grove: Could be better than we all think. 10. Gilroy: Brandon Boyd worth the No. 10 ranking alone.

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The City of Salinas has been under fire – literally and figuratively -- for years. From gangs and guns to city council buffoonery to City Hall absurdity, this area has been cranking out more comedy and tragedy than Williams Shakespeare himself could handle.

But when it comes to football stadiums, Salinas is king. The inauguration came Saturday with the presentation of Rabobank Stadium, proudly taking over the site of what used to be Salinas’ pride and joy for baseball – Municipal Stadium.

Rabobank Stadium may not be our knight in shining armor, but it has finally given this city something to brag about, or at least take a little pride in. You’ll not find anything like it in San Jose, Santa Cruz or Monterey. I think we can safely say that the $7.5 million stadium is the finest football-soccer playing facility for youth, high school and community college teams from San Francisco to Santa Barbara, and maybe beyond.

And it’s right here for all to see, play and enjoy.

Perhaps the most impressive feature of the 5,000-seat stadium, which has all the bells and whistles most any spectator and player could dream of, was that it was paid for without a cent of taxpayer money.

There’s a reason it’s been nicknamed “Miracle Stadium’’ by Warren Wayland, one of the key figures in the construction of a complex took barely 13 months to complete.

Much of the funding can be seen wherever you look inside and around the stadium. There are names of individuals and corporations from one end to the other on place cards, while some of the big-ticket sponsors have their company names on such things as the press box (D’Arrigo), concession stands and field house (Tanimura and Antle).

“There’s more to come,’’ Wayland said of the signs that single out the individuals and corporations. “There will eventually be more than 100.’’

At a minimum of $2,500 each it adds up quickly. And the funding came from the entire Salinas Valley. It was team effort all the way and shows what this area is capable of doing (as long as politicians and politics are kept out) for a good cause.

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No corners were cut during the planning and building. The players of all four high school teams that were first to play on the field last Saturday all received a decorative commemorative coin as a reminder that they were among the first to step on the turf.

A bronze statue is in the making that will appear near the main entrance. The statue is already up, but the finishing touches may take a couple of more months.

The three-headed statue consists of a cowboy, representing the Rodeo Association which streamlined the project and does all the booking; a football player and a female soccer player.

Here are a few more notes about the stadium;

• The Monterey Office of Education handles the closed-circuit coverage of games for the full-color scoreboard. Three cameras are used to scan the field, and there is a $300 charge for any school or team that wants to put their game on the big screen.

It could turn out to be a money-maker for all involved if schools can sell some commercial time to run during their game.

• Attendance for Saturday’s football extravaganza – two youth games and two prep games – totaled more than 5,000, according to Roger LaFountain, general manager of the Salinas Sports Complex. He reported 4,200 for the prep games and about 1,000 for the youth games.

• The opening ceremony held between the two prep games was supposed to be punctuated with a parachutist landing on the field and delivering the football for kickoff. But two minutes before the planned jump it had to be scrubbed when the fog rolled in.

• We won’t mention names, but before kickoff of the Salinas-North Salinas game someone walked onto the Rabobank turf and sprinkled some dirt taken from the infield of old Salinas Municipal Stadium. I thought it was a great touch. He had kept that dirt in a plastic bag for more than a year. Hopefully, Chet Chesholm is smiling from above.

• There’s no indication yet that the scoreboard video screen can be used to figure out certain defensive formations – that’s what they have spotters for – but during an Aug. 30 scrimmage between two freshmen teams a running back broke free and was watching himself on the scoreboard as he sprinted to the end zone. Wonder if he was looking to see if any defensive backs were closing in on him?

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• Next game at Rabobank Stadium is Friday, Sept. 20, when Soledad plays North Salinas.

Other thoughts after Week 1 of the prep football season;

• For as much credit as Carmel deserves for beating Palma, keep in mind that the Chieftains held the explosive Padres to one offensive touchdown – the other was off an interception with 10 seconds to play – and it took a spectacular catch by William Kehoe to keep that one scoring drive alive.

• Friday’s North Salinas-Carmel game is at MPC, even though it’s a Carmel home game. Typically this would be a 2 p.m. game Saturday at Carmel. But apparently the Carmel student body wanted a “Friday Night Lights’’ home game at least once this year.

Carmel will be going from an all-grass football field to a synthetic field next year. The renovation begins as soon as the football season ends, which might not be until late December.

• In case you missed it (we did), North County lost to Galileo in its opener last Saturday at home, 42-20. The Condors were guilty of seven turnovers and were penalized 12 times for 95 yards.

Nevertheless, Carlos Anaya rushed 27 times for 193 and one touchdown for North County. Josh Garnett and Jordan Graves also ran for scores.

• Gilroy running back Brandon Boyd, who missed nearly all of last season with a dislocated shoulder, made a spectacular return by rushing 47 times for 331 yards in a 52-41 loss to Live Oak.

• Salinas High looked strong and mighty against North Salinas in its opener, but it’ll get a strong test Friday when it travels to Saratoga High. The Saratoga quarterback is Jonathon Walters, who led the entire Central Coast Section in passing yards last season with 3,503 and touchdowns with 39. The Falcons return 14 starters from last year’s 6-4 team, including four receivers who had 30 or more catches.

Walters completed 28 of 41 passes for 262 yards, two touchdowns and one interception in a 41-20 loss Friday to Sacred Heart Cathedral.

George Watkins is a sports writer for The Salinas Californian. He can be reached at gwatkins@thecalifornina.com and 754-4264. He can also be followed on Twiter at watkins_salnews.